Staff Reporter
Lahore
Provincial Industries and Trade Minister Mian Aslam Iqbal here Monday chaired a meeting to review different issues relating to Punjab Industrial Estates Development Company (PIEDMC).
The minister was briefed that industrial units were being speedily established in industrial estates. The minister directed the PIEDMC to provide a list of industrial units established in the industrial estates after 2018 and also develop a dashboard in collaboration with Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) so that the necessary details of industrial units could be made available on one click.
The industrial estates are not meant for sale and purchase of plots but for industrialisation at the grassroots, he added. Instead of creating hurdles, he said, the investors should be provided facilities and the colonization of industrial units would restore the confidence of the investors.
Mian Aslam Iqbal said that a state-of-the-art industrial estate would be developed near Multan on Lahore-Multan Motorway, adding that the government was giving priority to industries which were a substitute for imports.
The government was encouraging exports, while decreasing dependence on imports, he added. The minister directed the authorities concerned to devise a plan of introducing the concept of corporate social responsibility and regretted that failure in benefitting from Rs 600 million worth Pakistan Drug Testing and Research Centre was deplorable. A financial model should be devised in this regard, he added.
The meeting was attended by Secretary Industries Wasif Khurshid, Chairman PIEDMC Nabeel Hashmi, President Sunder Industrial Estate Haroon Ali, President Multan Industrial Estate Hussain Fazal and others.
